


Wedding Vows

by idelthoughts



Series: Henry/Abigail Fics [5]
Category: Forever (TV)
Genre: Anxious Parenting, F/M, Gen, Marriage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-02
Updated: 2015-11-02
Packaged: 2018-04-29 15:27:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 996
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5132651
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idelthoughts/pseuds/idelthoughts
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Henry and Abigail attend Abe and Maureen's second wedding - from a safe distance.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Wedding Vows

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the 2015 Forever Contest hosted by the [Castle Hiatus Contest](http://castlehiatuscontest.tumblr.com/) \- thank you for hosting all the fun, and congrats to the winners, [argylepirateWD](http://archiveofourown.org/works/5128478), [binz](http://archiveofourown.org/works/5128352), and [shiplizard](http://archiveofourown.org/works/5128367)! Go read their amazing fics!
> 
> Thank you to pinkelephant5 for her patient beta work!

Abe was wearing his best suit, fine charcoal grey wool, well-matched to the crisp fall day.  Henry had helped him pick it out before Abe’s first wedding five years ago. Though it fit a little tighter now, Abe still cut quite a fine figure in it, with his new haircut and shined shoes. 

Even from across the street, Abigail could see the beaming smile on his face as he held Maureen’s hands, dutifully repeating the marriage officiant’s words on the steps of the courthouse.

Same suit, same wife, second go-around.  Abigail couldn’t say she understood, exactly, but she also knew she had very little say in the matter.

The bus stop bench was chilly through her wool skirt, making her bones ache, and she shifted closer to Henry.  He was stiff and unyielding, and it wasn’t until she nudged him with her shoulder that he noticed her proximity and put an arm around her.  He resumed watching the ceremony, a frown pulling at the corners of his mouth.  Henry’s lip reading was very good, and though they were too far away to overhear the ceremony, she was sure he was following along just fine, busily disapproving of every word.

“It’s a wedding, Henry, not a funeral.”

“After that fiasco of a trip to New Orleans, it could have been either.”  He looked to her, eyebrows raised with incredulity.  “A gun, Abigail!  What kind of domestic dispute involves a gun?”

“Abe did say she didn’t know it was loaded,” Abigail said with a shrug.  “Look, I’m not any happier than you, but Abe will do as he pleases.  If we’d like to be part of his life, we support him in his choices, even this one.”

“I just don’t understand what he sees in her.”

Henry gestured towards the courthouse as he spoke, but he dropped his hand quickly to avoid drawing any attention to the two supposedly casual observers of this momentous occasion.  As agreed, they were keeping a distance from Abe’s friends and romantic partners; much simpler to keep family life separate so as to avoid the difficulty of explaining Henry to anyone over time.  Distant observers or not, however, they couldn’t miss their son’s wedding.

“I think it’s quite clear what he sees in her,” Abigail said.

To emphasize her point, a gust of brisk fall air tugged at Maureen’s white dress, flashing the long length of her stockinged leg through the high-slit side.  Henry made an unhappy noise, and she chuckled.

“Oh come now, Henry.  You’ve had your adventures.  Let Abe have his.”

“Not like this,”  Henry said.

“Surely you have a few wild stories in your past.”

Henry glanced towards her with the barest hint of a smile, but he returned his focus to the courthouse steps.

“Certainly not.  I’m a family man.  A paragon of virtue and honour.” 

“That’s not what the nurses of the First Battalion said when I was first stationed there,”  she said, working hard to keep the smile off her face, and Henry harrumphed with an exaggerated, indignant air.  “And I seem to remember a bit of less-than-virtuous behaviour on a three-day pass in Italy, once upon a time?”

Henry’s arm slipped from her shoulder to her waist, and he pulled her close to his side to nuzzle into her hair.

“Well.  Perhaps not a perfect paragon.”  He placed a soft kiss on the skin just behind her ear.

Abigail leaned against his shoulder as Henry put his cheek to the top of her head.  Across the street, Abe fumbled in first one pocket, then the other, before extracting a ring for Maureen’s finger.

“I’ve only ever wanted him to be happy,” Henry said quietly.  “And it feels as though there’s nothing we can do anymore to make that happen.”

She’d known this was coming.  Since Abe had turned thirty-five last year, Henry had been struggling.  He’d become more strict and officiously parental with him than he’d ever been in Abe’s childhood, aggressively asserting himself in the role he feared was slipping away from him. 

She’d noticed a similar change in their marriage.  It was in the way he doted on her, in how demonstrative he was at every opportunity, and it struck her on occasion that she had a son as old as her husband.  How would this work in a decade, or two? 

For now, she managed to keep those thoughts tightly locked away.

“You’ll always be his father, Henry.”  She nodded towards Abe and Maureen, now kissing passionately as the marriage officiant looked away with an embarrassed air.  “It may be like this now, but life holds so many surprises.  Who knows?  If Maureen sticks around this time, she may find her way into the family.”

“I shall invest in bulletproof glassware in anticipation of that fine day,” Henry said dryly.

“He loves you.  He loves us both.  He’s not going to run off forever, no matter how many adventures he has in the meantime.”

The sentiment was half for Henry, and half to reassure herself.  Abe had inherited far too much of his parents’ adventurous spirits for her tastes, but with Henry in such a sulk, it was up to one of them to put on the supportive face and remain grounded.

Henry smiled finally.  He leaned lower to kiss her lips softly.

“Thank you, darling.  Sensible as always.”

“Just so,” she said, nodding confidently.  “What would you do without me, Henry Morgan?”

“I pray to never find out,” he said, and rested his forehead against hers with a sigh.

Her smile fell as she realized the unintended meaning in her words, and the effect they had on Henry.  She shifted to wrap her arms around him, squeezing tight.

“I love you,” she said, and he murmured the same back to her, his attention already back to the courthouse steps.

 _Till death do us part_ , she added silently. 

She’d made that commitment, and she would keep it, no matter how difficult it became.


End file.
